


Revelations

by falconeri



Series: Chenford Bits & Bobs & Odds & Ends [1]
Category: The Rookie (TV 2018)
Genre: F/M, Love Confessions, Stakeout, chenford
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-14 21:46:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29798328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/falconeri/pseuds/falconeri
Summary: Tim knew what she was doing, and was half thinking of outlasting her, but instead he went with his gut- he had a good feeling about the direction of this conversation. “It was never going to work out,” he admitted, “I think we knew that while we were both in LA, but we were having a good time. Long distance changes things, makes some things more clear.”“So, what did long distance illuminate for you, Sergeant Bradford?”“Nothing, Officer Chen,” he shot back, continuing the sarcastic names. “I had no revelations. Rachel did.”“Which was…” Lucy prompted.
Relationships: Tim Bradford & Lucy Chen, Tim Bradford/Lucy Chen, Tim Bradford/Rachel Hall
Series: Chenford Bits & Bobs & Odds & Ends [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2190285
Comments: 7
Kudos: 108





	Revelations

**Author's Note:**

> I had this idea for a short fic, it practically wrote itself. It takes place in-universe and deviates from canon in that Tim and Rachel are no longer dating (given the lack of explicit confirmation of Tim's relationship status.) 
> 
> This fic is not within the "When I Kissed the Teacher" 'verse.

Tim had been on edge and snappy all day, and he could tell Lucy was getting sick of the constant arguments that bordered on fights. He’d willingly apologize to maybe ten people on this earth, but the cop in the passenger’s seat, she was one of those ten. No longer his rookie as of yesterday, they were still partnered together by Grey, citing that they made a good team. They had looked at each other and smiled, then- he wasn’t wrong. 

He glanced over to Lucy, who was fiddling with her phone awkwardly, silently fuming after their latest argument in which his temper got the best of him.  _ Lovers quarrels,  _ Angela would tease him, knowing that the two partners basically acted like an old married couple at this point. 

Tim broke the tense silence, “Sorry,” he said wearily, “I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

  
_ Well, at least she’s not mad at me anymore?  _ Tim thought as he watched Lucy’s eyes brighten a little; he had her interest at least. She loved when he told her something about his personal life, She had once explained to him that it made her feel like they were friends.  _ We are friends, Boot _ , he had responded, and watched her eyes light up. He suspected that she also liked hearing about his personal life because he was normally so guarded, so him talking about his life outside of the job was a huge sign of trust.

  
“Why were you up so late?”

He shifted a little, and she could see his jaw clench tighter. “You know what,” she said quickly, “nevermind.” 

  
And they didn’t bring it up again for hours, until Tim ( _ Tim, of all people! _ ) initiated a conversation on a stake out. Usually it was just quiet, them each doing their own thing. Sometimes they joked around or talked about something, those were Lucy’s favorite moments of a stakeout. That, and Tim got surprisingly good snacks. 

“Rachel and I broke up,” the words breaking the silence, “it just wasn’t going to work.” 

  
Lucy knew better not to pry into that, but couldn’t resist throwing in a jest, “Oh, so was your rebound why you were up so late?”

“There wasn’t a-” he cut himself off as he realized that he was starting to reveal too much. 

  
“So why are you grumpy?” she asked, taking advantage of this side of Tim- the less guarded side- to continue the conversation. She had been seeing that side of Tim increasingly often, lately, owing to their deep friendship.

  
“I’m not grumpy,” he groused, deciding it was better to tell than to have her try to outmaneuver him in an attempt to gain information, “and Rachel and I broke up last night. I was on the phone late.”

  
“Right,” Lucy said, “I forgot you’re an old man with an early bedtime.”

  
He shot a glare at her at that, though it was one of the softer, fonder varieties of the Tim Bradford Glare. The one Lucy didn’t mind seeing more frequently. But it signaled he was done talking about it.

  
So they continued to sit in silence for a little while, until Lucy couldn’t take not knowing. She wanted to hear the story- she wasn’t going to text and ask Rachel, they had drifted apart when she moved. They only got really close because both of them spent a lot of time with Tim- once that ceased to be the case, their friendship gradually fizzled out. “So, uh, why wasn’t it going to work?” she asked, tentatively.

  
He shot her another ‘I don’t want to talk about this’ glare, and she shifted as she settled in her seat, pulled out her phone to check Instagram, and mumbled a sarcastic, “okay then.”

  
She knew him well, too well. She knew he’d crack when she didn’t push, reverse psychology- one of few useful things she learned from her upbringing. 

  
Tim knew what she was doing, and was half thinking of outlasting her, but instead he went with his gut- he had a good feeling about the direction of this conversation. “It was never going to work out,” he admitted, “I think we knew that while we were both in LA, but we were having a good time. Long distance changes things, makes some things more clear.” 

  
“So, what did long distance illuminate for you, Sergeant Bradford?”

  
“Nothing, Officer Chen,” he shot back, continuing the sarcastic names. “I had no revelations. Rachel did.” 

  
“Which was…” Lucy prompted.

  
This was the part that Tim didn’t know how to approach, the part that took his usual confidence and stashed it somewhere he couldn’t find it. He exhaled deeply, bracing himself, and said “that I’m in love with someone else.” After he got that out, he continued more confidently, “And that I have been for a long time- even before I met Rachel, I was already in love.”

  
“Isabel?” Lucy said, “of course you were in love with her, she was your wife? How-”

He cut her off before she could finish the question, “it wasn’t Isabel.”   
  


“Nell?” Lucy guessed, which took him aback. Then again, she had seen them out for drinks once- it was totally platonic, but Tim doubted Lucy would actually believe that. 

  
“No,” he said, and Lucy knew she wasn’t getting anything out of him this way.

  
“So, if you were in love with someone before Rachel but after Isabel, why didn’t you pursue it? Too close to a rebound?”

  
“I wasn’t with Isabel in over a year, not where it mattered anyways,” he shook his head.

“Then why?” she persisted with her questioning.

  
A little on edge again, he snapped, “because it would have been a huge ethical breach!”   
The look Lucy gave him for snapping made him want to apologize again, but instead, he plowed on with his explanation, “There was too much of a power imbalance.”

  
“So what, you wanted to date Grey?” she said, teasingly, as she wracked her mind for who it could possibly be- she wanted to see his face when she guessed correctly. 

  
Tim rolled his eyes at that, but stayed silent.

  
“Power imbalance…” she mumbled under her breath, thinking of potential candidates. “Is it someone who works with us?”

“This isn’t 20 questions, Boot.”

  
“Technically no longer your Boot.”

“As of  _ yesterday _ ,” he emphasized, “Besides, you’ll always be my Boot.”

  
“That’s almost sweet, I think?” She said, still trying to figure out who the mystery woman was. She briefly thought if she should think about any potential men, but Tim had never given any indication that he liked men, and she’d only ever heard him talk about girlfriends and dates with women. So, for the moment, she allowed herself to restrict her candidate pool to women, trying to work it out in her head, he watched her eyes dart as she thought. And thought. And thought.

  
Tim wasn’t known for his patience, and his budding anxiety wasn’t helping the situation. So instead he once again rolled his eyes and said “you know- you’re an excellent cop, of course you are, I trained you,” it was now Lucy’s turn to roll her eyes, “but for someone so smart, you tend to miss what’s right in front of you. The obvious. The things in plain sight.”

  
“What is this, some kind of Tim Test?”

  
He huffed out a sigh, “No, Boot. Lucy.” Well, that surprised both of them- he tended to only call her name or the other, he never changed in the middle of a thought. Idly, she wondered why as Tim tried to pull words together, and was jostled from her thoughts when he spoke again.

“Lucy, it’s  _ you _ ,” he emphasized, “You were my rookie, I couldn’t date you. I shouldn’t have had those feelings in the first place!” as he said as much, his volume rose unintentionally as Lucy could see him release a year’s worth of pent up feelings and frustration at himself for breaking some absurd standard he had set for himself. 

  
Well, that was a surprise, but it was certainly a welcome one. “I’m not your rookie anymore,” she said, “I officially became a full-fledged officer yester- Ohhhhh,” she cut herself off as realization dawned on her. 

“Our conversation got derailed last night, really derailed,” he said, “It just… happened. I told her you had finished your training, and I could celebrate being officially rookie-less.”

  
“Hey!” There was a look of indignation on her face, but it was friendly, teasing.

He shook his head, a fond smile on his face, “Turns out I wasn’t so thrilled about being rookie-less after all, she picked up on that. And then told me the rest. I had never thought about it before.”

  
“Well, was she right?”

  
“Yeah Boot,” he sighed, “she was right.” After that revelation they sat in silence again, each caught up in their own thoughts.

  
This silence was anxious. After spending so much time together over the last year, they could spend hours in companionable silence- apparently, that was not the case when one admitted their love for the other. Tim broke the silence, needing to know how Lucy felt- after all, he had just dropped that on her. 

  
“Would you like to get a drink after shift?” he asked.

  
“Yeah, I’d like that a lot,” she said with a smile, “plus at least I can be pretty confident that  _ you're _ not a serial killer.”

  
Tim shook his head and smiled fondly, before a call came in over the radio from dispatch and they were back to their normal routine.


End file.
